The paper is structured in two parts. The first one analyses the proposals of the European Commission concerning the reform of the European Union policies and the Eastern enlargement, set out in Agenda 2000. The second addresses the impacts of the Eastern enlargement to Portugal. The paper...

This paper presents cross-country evidence on a nonlinear Okun curve. The analysis is based on a simple error-correction model of unemployment. The model is estimated using a threshold model estimator. Evidence from 20 OECD countries for 1960-1997 gives support for the existence of...

This paper re-examines the relationship between government size and output volatility from two perspectives. First, we use a wider international data set of 91 countries over the period 1980?1999 and thus not only the OECD data that have thus far been utilized. Second, we also allow for time...

This paper investigates the adjustment of employment to population shocks in 22 OECD countries over the period 1960 - 1997. Most of the countries have experienced significant population shocks during that period. The speed of adjustment parameter is used as a measure of the functioning of the...

The paper serves as a guide to the FUSSEP (Finnish University Students Socio-Economic Preferences) database ? 2005 round. The data were gathered via an Internet mail survey in the Fall of 2005. The target population was 105000 students registered in 18 universities in Finland. About 30000...

This study reviews the key economic features of the telecommunications industry and outlines two benchmark models that have been developed in previous literature for introducing competition into local telecommunications. One possibility is services based competition, where entrant telephone...

This paper discusses the Finnish experiences of Active Labour Market Policy (ALMP) across the economic cycle, especially in economic downturn. Cuts in unemployment spell duration have been the main factors to contribute in decreasing the unemployment in the recent years. Subsidised employment...

Small open economies in Europe share many of the same characteristics, policy choices and economic problems. This paper argues that Belgium is profoundly affected by its position as a small open economy in the core of the European Union. Yet, this European dimension does not prevent that even a...

The study examines comprehensively the three entities involved when state aid is distributed to enterprises in Finland, namely the applicant enterprises, the projects financed and the distributors of funds. It demonstrates how quantitative methods can be used to monitor and evaluate state aid to...